With all of the big console and game announcements recently, one might assume that Dragon Quest trending on Twitter could mean a new RPG announcement. That's sadly not the case, as exciting as a next-gen Dragon Quest 12 announcement could be. Instead, there's a much sillier reason for Dragon Quest trending on Twitter. The reason being a quirky new Twitter hashtag with a special Dragon Quest feature.
There's a special hashtag for the augmented reality cell phone game Dragon Quest Walk, which is only available in Japan, at least for now. It features a unique little emoji alongside it, like many branded Twitter hashtags do these days. But it also features something special beyond the emoji. If a Twitter user "likes" a tweet with the Dragon Quest Walk hashtag, instead of an animation of a heart being shown there's an animation of a Dragon Quest slime.
The animation isn't anything crazy. It's a very simple animation of the Twitter heart transforming into a bouncing slime. The Dragon Quest slime is the iconic blue monster that's been associated with Dragon Quest for years. It simply smiles and bounces and that's it, but it's enough for fans of Dragon Quest fans to share the hashtag hundreds of times and to get it trending.
Hashflags on Twitter, as they're called, are still uncommon. The Dragon Quest hashflag will be the 18th ever added. Other current hashflags are for the #BlackJoy and #AlwaysProud hashtags, but there have been hashflags for Mulan, the NBA, and Apple before, too. Why Dragon Quest Walk got a hashflag, especially months after the game Dragon Quest Walk launched in Japan, is a mystery.
Dragon Quest Walk is an Android and iOS game available exclusively in Japan.